a lifetime coach
Story by Susan O'Connor; Photo by Dero Sanford

As Dr. Dean Lee moves into his ninth year as Arkansas State University’s director of athletics with a stellar career in his wake, the 53-year-old continues to have coaching in his blood.

“I have loved the relationships over the years with student athletes — the ability to make an impact in some cases and hopefully make a difference in their lives.”

An entrée into coaching actually began in the eighth grade for Lee as he assisted Berryville principal Jack Edens with peewee athletics. Even at that early juncture, he said, it was a profession to which he was drawn.

“He asked me to assist him with the elementary program during my lunch hour,” Lee said. “It was a tremendous opportunity for me and something that I continued all through high school. I really didn’t realize it at the time – how much it would influence me and how much it helped me in establishing my goals for the future.”

A multi-sport athlete in his own right, Lee competed in high school sports at Berryville and was selected to play in the All-Star basketball and football games in 1975. He was a three-sport letterman at Henderson State University — basketball and baseball in 1976, and basketball and tennis in 1979.

He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Henderson, and coached basketball at Malvern High School early in his career. Excellence followed, with multiple awards for district coach of the year. In 1983, he was nominated for Arkansas Coach of the Year.

From 1983-86, Lee served as assistant basketball coach at Henderson, where he also taught classes. Though he said he had no aspirations to get out of coaching, an incident during this period triggered a change in his life’s direction. He had been scouting recruits at a Mississippi junior college All-Star basketball game and had to drive all night to get back to Arkadelphia to teach an 8 a.m. class. He arrived bleary-eyed without enough time to sleep before the class. As he walked into a gas station to get a honey bun and milk, an employee exclaimed, “Is that your truck rolling down the road?” Lee had been so tired that he had failed to put it in gear.

“I decided to explore other options at that point,” he said. “I had no intention of getting out of coaching, but I thought I needed something to fall back on down the road.”

He began work toward a doctorate in education at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and taught classes, and also volunteered as an academic counselor in the U of A men’s athletic program. The move put Lee and his wife, Reba, near both sides of their family in that part of the state, as well. The couple has two daughters, Diamond Olivia and Anna Pearl.

Lee’s volunteerism at U of A led to a post as vice president of the Razorback Foundation, where he worked with Terry Don Phillips, current athletic director at Clemson, a connection that would lead him to Oklahoma State University from 1997-2002. Lee served as associate athletic director for external operations, then executive director of the OSU Athletic Associates. From 1995-1997, Lee was director of athletics at Arkansas Tech University.

Since his arrival at ASU in 2002, Lee’s wealth of experience in the administration of college athletics, as well as fundraising, has contributed to major milestones for the university in a variety of arenas. Some highlights include:

• Highest graduation rates in school history in 2007-2008. Historically, 50 percent of student athletes are on the honor roll and the spring 2010 average GPA was 2.92.
• Achieved the highest total football attendance in a season and recorded seven of the top 10 highest attendance games in school history.
• Secured WNIT women’s basketball home games and established school record for attendance with a crowd of 10,892.
• Oversaw numerous new facility upgrade projects including the installation of new state-of-the-art Geo Surfaces turf inside ASU Stadium, strength and conditioning center, sports medicine center, academic success center, first class renovations of the men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball locker rooms, a media/film room in the Convocation Center, baseball field level seating, baseball picnic area and more.
• Received top eight largest gifts in school history for sports facility projects.
• Scheduled school’s first ever $1 million football guarantee games.
Lee also serves on the NCAA Men’s Basketball Issues Committee, the BCS Athletic Directors Advisory Committee and the Division 1A Athletic Directors Association Board of Trustees.

He sees an abundant future for ASU.

“We’re thrilled with the support we get from our fans and community. We have a lot of great people who support this program.

“I’m seeing a transition in the mindset of the culture here — being able to do some things that in the past people said couldn’t be done. My objective is for Arkansas State to never sell itself short. We want to stand eyeball to eyeball and go toe to toe with our opponents, and realize that we are as good as anybody.

We’re coming off of one of the most successful athletic years in a decade. We’re strong across the board in all our sports and we expect our opportunities for success to become even greater.”